Reality bites
In the universe of world record holders, the name Takeru Kobayeshi holds rock star status as the six-time winner of the annual hot dog eating competition held (where else) but Coney Island on Brooklyn’s seashore. His new record: 53 ¾ hot dogs downed in 12 minutes (hold the mustard, please), marks another chapter in the epicurean record book that includes such feats of gluttony as 331 crawfish in 12 minutes, 6 pounds of SPAM in 12 minutes, 13.22 pounds of watermelon in 15 minutes, 46 dozen oysters in 10 minutes, 11 pounds of cheesecake in 9 minutes and 17.7 pounds of pan-seared cow brains in 15 minutes.
Among the All-Stars in the Indigestion Hall of Fame is Sonya “The Black Widow” Thomas who once put Cool Hand Luke to shame by downing 65 hard boiled eggs in just over 6 ½ minutes (it took Mr. Luke an hour to eat 50). Then there’s Eric “Badlands” Booker whose specialty is pies and matzo balls. And a favorite among Nebraska Cornhuskers is Joe LaRue who polished off 34 ears of sweet corn in 12 minutes. These competitive eaters participated in more than 80 national contests last year attracting media coverage from CNN, BBC, NBC Nightly News, The Today Show, The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, Sports Illustrated, FHM Magazine, The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, Smithsonian Magazine, and Time magazine.
Much of the credit for the growing success of the “eating circuit” goes to the care and feeding provided by savvy PR pros and the International Federation of Competitive Eating, which organizes and publicizes most of the major contests. Given the growing popularity of these culinary contests and their colorful characters, a reality TV series would seem inevitable. Imagine the drama of “The Black Widow” going one-on-one against “Badlands” in the “Kolache Challenge of the Century,” or envision Cookie Jarvis in a face-off against Crazy Legs Conti in the “Rutabaga Rumble.” Consider the list of potential advertisers ready to gobble up sponsorship of such a series: Alka-Selzer, Pepto Bismol, Tums and Rolaids. And how about potential series titles: “Gulping Gourmets,” “No Guts, No Glory,” or “Everyone Loves Ravoili.”
This post was written by: Tom Giitter
July 10th, 2006 at 5:33 pm
Quite the sport. I follow a blog of a competitive eater who is, shall we say, a bit unorthodox? Check it out… http://steakbellie.blogspot.com/ Note that he writes about other things too & he’s kind of odd. But he has some great photos with the eating greats and anecdotes about how to prepare for eating contests. Fascinating….